Harry Potter and the Incarnation of Death
by GinnyMyLove
Summary: AU Harry is ready to end himself after losing everything; and take Tom with him. The death curse on his lips when a cloaked figure with white mask shows up, and is quickly dispatched. This was no death eater, this was Death Himself. Guess who gets the job? Incarnations of Immortality crossover, no knowledge of the source material needed.
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective**_

_**owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way**_

_**associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is**_

_**intended.**_

**Harry Potter and the Incarnation of Death**

**Chapter One:**

The light had been fighting a war, that was the problem. This wasn't war, it was a group of terrorists masquerading as one side of a war. Dumbledore had brainwashed generations of Wizards and Witches into being mindless pawns and when he sent them off to fight they didn't ask questions. Meanwhile Tom was fighting guerrilla style, 'Asymmetrical Warfare' Hermione had called it. But they had been too late with a change in tactics once Dumbledore was out of the picture.

Ginny died during his Seventh Year while the trio were out looking for Horcruxes. A freak accident in potions if Snape were to be believed; the fact that several Slytherins died along with her when the potions equivalent of chlorine gas filled the room covered nicely for the Potions Master, the fact that all but one of those students had refused to become Death Eaters only served to harden Harry's resolve to destroy Snape at the next opportunity.

Not that he was even sure he loved Ginny, but she was still a good friend and he was saddened by her passing. Luna had taken to sending Harry mail after that, he never did figure out how she was able to get the mail through Hermione's wards.

They had become pretty close in correspondence with Harry dropping mail at the nearest public owl box in disguise. Even if Hedwig had made it out with him he wouldn't have risked her or revealing his location. But while he found a lot about Luna that he liked, and would never forget her being there for him after Sirius died, she was a thousand miles away or more depending on the day and he had bigger things on his mind, besides...he couldn't justify any sort of relationship when he had to break up with Ginny...and she died without his being able to tell her...

Well tell her something...like... Tell her that he really liked her, maybe even could have loved her, and he didn't break up with her for any other reason than to protect her, and because he didn't think it was fair to her to fall in love with a condemned man. He told Luna all of this, and she seemed to understand that no matter what they might have between them, he couldn't commit to anything until the war was over.

There was never a single front to the "war" to be fought, the most important thing anyone could do was to find Tom's soul anchors and destroy them so that when he finally DID die, it would be for the last time. It was October when Harry heard the news that Luna had been pulled from school by her father only to die when their home was destroyed in a Death Eater raid against the Quibbler. The timing could have been better, as Ron left him alone with Hermione soon afterward.

Hermione was broken...having invested so much in Ron only to watch him walk away. Harry was still reeling from Ginny's death and now Luna's. Neither was in any shape to offer the other comfort...until one night they got to dancing to the Wizarding Wireless...and ended up in bed together. Afterward they had both cried themselves to sleep...curled up around each other, clinging to what seemed like the only thing they had left in the world.

Dumbledore died later that year when Snape turned on him and declared himself the new Headmaster, McGonagall had taken what was left of the Order into hiding, attempting to coordinate with the Ministry via Shacklebolt and Tonks. Shack died when the Ministry fell, Tonks got out but not fast enough to avoid losing a leg. The only time Harry had seen her before the end, she was joking about how all she needed now was to lose an eye and she could claim to be the second coming of Moody.

Once the Ministry fell the already asymmetrical war went even more lopsided, the sheep in the general public didn't seem to care any longer who was in charge as long as they weren't being threatened; if you being threatened for being against the new 'Minister Voldemort' then so be it. Liberty, what little there had been in Wizarding Britain, went down to the sound of shrugging shoulders and buttoned lips. This was the point when Hermione had taken a page out of Tom's own handbook and they had begun using terrorist tactics against the newly installed regime.

The problem was, Tom and the Death Eaters never knew how to actually run things once they took over. Their entire philosophy had been about fighting those in power, once they were in power they were little more than now-glorified thugs. So the light side terrorists would attack, and then the Death Eater terrorists masquerading as Aurors would attack, and everyone suffered.

Ron died before he could come to his senses; the Burrow went up in flames one night in December leaving Hermione and Harry as almost a default couple. It was not that they didn't love each other, that was the easy part. It was all the pain that they were both dealing with that kept them from being what they both felt was almost meant to be. That didn't keep them apart, they just knew it could never be 'perfect' for either of them again.

Neville of all people was the one to retrieve the Sword of Gryffindor from Snapes office, a copy of Dumbledores Will had appeared in the tent, though not the items they had been left after his death. Luna had mentioned the sword to Neville before leaving school, and he had retrieved it and handed it over to the Order once he had finally gathered the courage to leave school himself, regardless of the Snatchers. Luckily after a not-so-pleasant conversation with the Goblins all of the Horcruxes had been found including the Cup from the Lestrange Vault, in exchange for the return of the Sword and all Goblin-made items in Harry's vaults.

The Horcruxes died with the exception of Nagini...unfortunately Hermione had died along with the locket which fought back the hardest. It had shown them images of Ron chastising them for "happily buggering along on top of his grave." It was too much for her to handle and when she collapsed, the energy inside the locket consumed her in seconds leaving Harry in shock at the speed, and with righteous anger to fuel his strike, as he picked up the sword and cleaved 'Ron' in half down to the locket he was standing over.

The one thing none of them had taken into account, was how the collateral damage was being perceived by the Muggles.

The 'Statute of Secrecy' that the Purebloods were so on about was actually a law laid down by Queen Anne whom had overseen the separation of worlds at the same time that England and Scotland were officially brought together under one crown. The treaty which made the Magical World its own entity within Britain, also made them subject to the whim of the Crown. Should it be determined that the statute of secrecy was in danger of wide spread disclosure, the Crown would take those measures which were necessary to prevent it. Several attempts were made to reach Minister Voldemort, but after several agents and emissaries were found dead the message seemed clear.

So it was that as magical attacks were being noted on the evening news, Queen Elizabeth decided to take matters into her own hands. Tactical missile strikes in the "Vicinity of" Hogwarts Castle, Diagon Alley and every other magical area MI-6 could identify took out all of the major sites, including Malfoy Manor and several other nearby homes, discorporating Voldemort and leaving him with only one soul anchor left.

Harry.

This is how we find Harry on his knees in the ruins of the Great Hall at was was formerly Hogwarts Castle. With his wand pointed to his head and arguing with himself, or rather, with the remnants of Tom's shredded soul which were now attempting to take over his body for itself. It had been several days where a deeply depressed Harry, having lost everything and everyone, had contemplated suicide when Tom had shown up. And it was that event which finally firmed his conviction to go through with it.

He had decided on Hogwarts, since it was the one place that had ever felt like home to him, despite all the terrors he had undergone as a child, it was still preferable to living with the Dursleys. He had also decided that the Avada Kedavra would work just fine; it wouldn't have worked if it had just been him, and that was the reason he hadn't done it before now. He simply didn't hate himself enough for the curse to work, and therefore, he kept telling himself he didn't hate himself enough to end his pitiful life. But Voldemort taking up residence in his skull, well that was a different story all together. He had long been prepared to be the Martyr, the Weapon, he'd known for years that his destiny was probably to die taking Tom out with him, he just hadn't thought he'd be his own target.

So here he was, wand tip glowing green as it read the intent of his magic, pointed at his own temple just to the side of his infamous scar. Tom was screaming in his head to stop but Harry knew he could do this, just this one last thing and then he could rest. He began the incantation, "Avada..." just as he caught movement of a figure in long black robes and a white face from the corner of his eye.

He spun on his knee and pointed his wand at the figure as he cried out the rest of the curse, "Kedavra!"

Green light shot across the burnt stone that used to be the floor and the figure with the skull for a face looked surprised...if a skull can look surprised... as it held out its human hands in a vain attempt to ward off the death magic. As the figure fell Harry was already on his feet and had closed the distance to stand over the corpse.

That was when it got disturbing. Tom had actually shut up as he was looking on in interest and seemed to have enjoyed the rush of power from taking a human life, even if it was one of his own minions. It wasn't as if he hadn't killed a Death Eater or two in his lifetime anyway. But the sudden silence after days of torture was not the disturbing part.

"Bloody hell..." Harry whispered...having picked up Ron's bad language almost as an homage to him. Hermione had never once chastised him for it after Ron's death.

No the disturbing part was that it was not an Skull Mask like one would normally find a Death Eater wearing, if anything it appeared to be an honest to gods human skull. And the weapon which he had barely taken time to recognize before ending this man's life was a Scythe...surely this wasn't...

"Death, Thanatos, the Grim Reaper, he who holdeth the Bucket of Kicking?"

Harry spun once again with a curse ready on his lips, only to find a figure in white and blue robes with a rather oversized hour glass hovering over his right shoulder. The mans face seemed to be blurred for some reason but the voice...reminded him strangely of Sirius. "Who are you!" Harry shouted, having had just about enough of disturbing shite happening to him for one day.

"Oh please, would you put that thing away? Do you really think you could kill Time Itself...or rather Himself?"

"Time?" Harry asked as he felt a headache forming as memories of using Hermione's Time Turner and avoiding paradox swam to the surface.

"Chronos to be exact, and you and I are really really close in the future, so I can assure you, you did not kill me today."

Harry's bullshit filter finally pegged and he collapsed to his knee's with his wand at his side, Tom began ranting in his head once more and Harry screamed as loud as he could, "Would you just SHUT UP already?"

Strangely enough, the invading spirit shut up at precisely that moment, midway through a rant about how powerful killing had made Harry feel and how he should join the Dark Side and kill the odd man in front of them. Please, as if Harry had never seen Star Wars...actually he wondered if Tom had seen Star Wars...but that was completely off topic.

Looking up at the figure known as Chronos, Harry cleared his throat, "So um...what?"

The figure placed a hand over its obscured face and sighed while shaking its head. "Honestly, I thought this went better...alright!" He clapped his hands together and reached out to turn his hourglass. "I've stopped time for a moment so we can do this properly."

"Stopped time?"

"Yes, do try to keep up kiddo. Now I am Chronos, the Incarnation of Time; I have total authority over all things time, future and past, within my purview. That," he said pointing at the corpse, "Is someone who I am sure will be a dear friend of mine in the future...that is, in my future, but I'm getting off topic. That my dear boy, is the Incarnation of Death."

Harry closed his eyes and counted to ten then opened them to find the man still looking back at him. "Okay...so um...Incarnation?"

"Good question, who says you aren't smart eh? Incarnations are like offices that are filled by mortals, while you are an Incarnation you are effectively immortal however. And I guess you could say Incarnations are kind of like gods and in fact, have been mistaken for them at times."

"So you are the Incarnation of Time, and that is the Incarnation of Death."

The blurred face seemed to smile, "Correct."

"And while you hold the office you are effectively immortal?"

"Correct."

"And you can't be killed."

"Correct."

"Then how the bloody hell did I just KILL DEATH?" Harry screamed, he began to wonder if Tom's obvious madness were beginning to affect him.

The figure smacked the blur where his forehead would be, "Of course, sorry, there are rules for how the offices are transferred. Our friend here has to be killed by someone."

"But if he is immortal then how did I kill him?"

"Um..." Chronos got up and walked over to the corpse and rolled him over, "Forgive me Thanatos, you know I mean no disrespect...Ah!"

"Ah?"

"Ah ha!" Chronos said pointing at the dead mans hands, "He forgot to put on his gloves."

"Okay...so for the office of Death to change holders...Death basically has to screw up or want to die?"

The man put a finger on his blurry nose, "Got it in one."

Harry closed his eyes once more and counted to ten, marveling at the silence inside his own head, suddenly his eyes popped open. "Bloody Hell!"

"Ha Ha, I see you figured it out!"

"But what if I don't want to be some bloody Incarnation? Certainly not Death himself!"

"Well...I believe eventually another candidate will be chosen, but really it would be best if you would just put on the robe."

He recognized the tone in the Incarnations voice and grew very cautious, "Why..what do you mean for the best?"

"You see..Thanatos isn't called to pick up every death personally. There is an aura that sort of does most our work for us along with some minions in some cases...but I digress. Death only comes personally for those souls which are close to being in balance and cannot automatically go to heaven or hell."

"So..."

"So why don't you look in the pockets of his robe, there should be a set of stones, one white and one black."

Harry sighed deeply and began rummaging through the corpses pockets until he found what he was looking for. "These?"

"Those...now what you do is run them from the top of your head down to your toes..."

"Like this?" Having decided to leave his sanity wherever it had run off to for the moment, Harry stood and performed the action, watching as the stones grew brighter or darker with each passing.

"Exactly like that, now put the two together, they should form a sphere..." Harry did so, "Alright now hold them out in front of you and drop them.

Harry shrugged and did as he was told, only to be amazed that they stayed in place. Not nearly as amazed as a Muggle would be mind you, having seen things float of their own accord often including his broomstick. But still amazed, then the stones slowly began to sink toward the ground.

"What's happening? Is the charm failing?"

Chronos shook his head, "That isn't a charm, its one of the tools of your office."

"Deaths office, I haven't accepted yet."

"Fine! Anyway, as I told you, most souls are either light enough to float up to Heaven all by themselves or heavy enough with sin to sink down to Hell of their own accord. Souls that are in balance need Deaths personal examination. It looks like killing him may have slightly overbalanced you toward Hell"

His heart sank as he pondered the still slowly sinking stones, "So I'm going to Hell..." He heard himself capitalize the word now that it seemed to be much more real.

"Not necessarily. Your soul still seems to be in pretty good balance, and were I death I wouldn't send you to hell for having a slightly soiled soul. Nope you'd probably go to Purgatory for the next several hundred years."

"Several hundred years?"

"Give or take, it depends on the type and amount of sin on your soul. In any case, you get to work it off there working in administration or directly for one of the Incarnations if they want some help around the house or whatever."

Harry pondered this for a few moments, "So my choices are...go to Hell, or be stuck doing paperwork for a couple of centuries?"

"Or other things, some Incarnations like boys..."

"Fine I'll do it!" Harry said grudgingly as he began to strip the clothes off of the corpse.

"Excellent! Oh! Don't forget the watch too, that's one of my favorites of his toys, though I suppose I am biased."

"Biased?" Harry asked as he strapped the watch to his wrist.

"It lets you stop time for a while if you need to, I mean after all people are dying at the same time or within seconds of each other all over the world, you aren't Santa Clause after all!"

He paused as he put the cloak on over his clothes,"Wait! Santa is real?"

"What? Oh...no, not enough people worship or believe in him...at least not really or not long enough..."

"Huh?"

The man waived off the question, "Long story, I'll tell you some time I promise, but right now we really need to move this along."

Harry looked up from where he was putting the skeletal galoshes on over his boots. "But I thought you were Time, how can you be in a rush?"

The blur seemed to smile, "Time waits for no man Harry, least of all me. I'll be catching up on this once I put time back in motion for the rest of the Universe."

"I don't understand..."

"You don't have to, Time is my job, Death is your job. Oh! Don't forget the gloves!'

"Ah yeah..." Harry said sheepishly as he put the gloves on.

The gloves were almost unnoticeable, he could even feel things through them as if they weren't' there yet they made his hands looks exactly like bone. As he touched his fingertips together he shivered slightly as all he could feel was cold bone. "Now that is just creepy."

"The boots are the same way, you think that's creepy, try pulling your hood up."

Harry did as he was told and waited for a moment for something to happen, "I don't get it."

"Look at your predecessor."

Harry turned to look behind him and saw an ordinary human face where the mask had been before. He reached up and touched his cheek, only to pull his hand away in shock having felt both the bone of his apparent skull and the touch of deaths cold hand on his cheek. "No mask? Just the cloak huh? This is going to take some getting used to."

"I understand, I really do, every Incarnation has problems when they first come into their office, that's why there is a 30 day trial period where you get to learn without being penalized for it. If you don't think you can handle it, or we don't think you can handle it you are removed from office and allowed to go where your soul would take you."

"Wait, you mentioned penalties? What about when I die eventually because I got stupid?"

"All Incarnations souls are locked in state when they accept the office until the trial period is up. That way any mistakes you make wont count against you. Once you are accepted full time your slate is wiped clean and you get to start over again."

"But with the powers of a god." Harry said with a slight smile.

"Exactly! Alright, well you look like you are ready to go, so lets on with it shall we?"

"Wait what? Just like that?"

"Just as Time waits for no man, so too Death. You have to realize that many of the souls you are going to be taking are in great pain, and that pain cannot end until you take them. Also, you can't get too sentimental, if you refuse to take a soul you are going to be hearing from Fate, and let me tell you Fate's a Bitches when you get on her wrong sides."

"Huh?"

"Later Harry, later..." Chronos turned and put his fingers in his mouth to whistle long and loud. "Mortis, get your scraggly pale ass up here!"

Harry was momentarily stunned when a beautiful bone-white horse galloped through the ruins and up to Chronos, where he nuzzled the man's hand. "Yes I'm happy to see you too Mortis."

"Mortis?"

"Your trusty steed, Mortis this is Harry, Harry this is Mortis."

The horse looked confused for a moment as it looked back and forth between the two incarnations...before performing what could only be the horse version of a shrug and trotting over to Harry who bowed to the creature.

"Um...Harry what are you doing?" Chronos asked him.

Without taking his eyes off the ground Harry spoke softly, "Waiting for him to bow back."

Chronos snickered, "Um...why?"

Harry looked up and met the blurry eye of his new friend, "Isn't that how you get to know a horse?"

"He's not a Hippogryff Harry, he's just a really smart horse...thing."

"Horse-thing?" Harry asked, confused.

"Well..Mortis is...he's... Here watch." Chronos pushed a button on the saddle and where the horse was before was suddenly a gleaming white Cadillac.

"Whoah."

"Exactly...he's a horse...but he's other things too...to blend in better when your out on a pickup."

"Is this like transfiguration?"

"Not like your thinking Harry, but something like that."

"I'm never gonna understand this am I?"

"Maybe if you hold the office long enough... In any case, I'd prefer sitting passenger than riding behind you on the saddle anyway. Climb in!" With that Chronos climbed into the passenger seat.

Harry joined him in the drivers seat, "But I never learned how to drive!"

Chronos waved him off, "Don't worry about it, Mortis is just as smart as a car as he was a horse, he can take us wherever you want to go."

"Um..okay..."

Harry took a moment to look around the vehicle. It was top of the line everything and all bone white with black accents, in the center was what appeared to be a GPS unit with a Horse Head Logo spinning lazily around.

"Is there a button or something?"

"No no, just talk to him. He only looks like a car." He leaned forward a bit, "Mortis, lets head for the next appointment and I'll walk the rookie through it all."

The car surged forward and Harry screamed as they passed right through a fairly intact wall and out over the Black Lake. "A flying car?"

"Would you rather he were a helicopter? I'm sure there is a manual in here somewhere..."

"No! Flying car is fine this is just a bit too deja vu, plus it just isn't really very inconspicuous, is there an invisibility charm or something?"

Chronos relaxed back into his seat, "Ah, see, while going about our duties Incarnations are largely ignored by the mortals unless we directly interact with them or they're some sort of Seer."

"Like a Muggle repelling charm?"

"You know Harry, you are really going to have to let go of some of that magic stuff, the rules are different for Incarnations."

"Yes, but its best to go with what you know when you are faced with overwhelming information. Does it really hurt anybody for me to think of it as a charm rather than act like I understand something when I'm really completely oblivious?"

Chronos rubbed his head, "You are starting to remind me of my girlfriend, she has a way of confusing people with their own arguments..."

The screen flashed and beeped before showing a slowly growing satellite map of China and eventually Hong Kong. "Ah, we're almost there."

The car came to gliding stop at an intersection and Chronos got out quickly, Harry scrambled to follow. They walked up to what looked like a stop light and waited as hundreds of people gathered behind them and cars, buses and bicycles rushed past in the road. Not a single person seemed to notice either of them standing there.

"How do I know who I'm supposed to take?" Harry asked.

"You just do, you get the list of times and places, I'm sure you can get the name from Mortis if you asked ahead of time, but usually it is pretty apparent who you are here for."

Just then the light changed and the people surged around them and out into the intersection, Harry watched in horror as a Taxi careened around the corner and straight into the mass of people. He quickly looked away. "That's horrible! Why couldn't we stop it if we knew this was going to happen!"

Chronos looked sadly at the newly minted Incarnation of Death. "Harry, Death is a part of life and people are given free will to live their lives as they choose within certain limits. We cannot intervene in every mortals life and we cannot save everyone. Your job is not to decide who lives or dies, it is to make the process of dying as easy as possible a transition on your clients. Now look at your watch."

Harry looked at the ordinary chronograph watch.

"The button on the top lets you pause the timer...yes you see the timer hand right? Okay that timer tells you how long until your next appointment, the bottom chronograph is actually a compass which will point you in the right direction if you really can't find your client, and that middle stop watch? That's why I love that thing, the bottom button will actually pause time for a few minutes which is useful if your next appointment is in 7 minutes on the other side of the planet. Do you follow me?"

Harry tried to take it all in and nodded even though he wasn't entirely sure he got that. The watch began beeping in alarm and he noticed the timer gave him about a minute to find his client in the pile of bodies. He sighed and followed the compass directions through the corpses until he found a little girl with her head on wrong...her neck must have been broken. She was paralyzed but there were still tears running down her cheeks.

Crying himself now, Harry reached down and touched her cheek to wipe away the tears, instead his hand passed into her and he felt it catch on something silky. He pulled that out and the life left the little girls eyes as he found himself holding a wispy bit of material he assumed had to be a soul.

"A real shame that." Chronos said softly from over his shoulder.

Harry wiped his eyes with the back of his sleeve, "I don't understand, why did a little girl need my intervention? Shouldn't her soul still be pure?"

Chronos nodded, "You would think so, but you are holding it, what do you see just by looking at it?"

Harry frowned as he examined it, "It's a uniform gray color...but I don't understand how she could have any sin on her soul?"

"Sin normally shows up as black spots on the soul Harry, the gray tells me it probably isn't her own sin that threw her off balance. Maybe her mother was raped and that is how she was conceived? We can't know without asking Fate, but she didn't have time to change her balance."

"The sins of the father or mother shouldn't be transferred to the child. That's just wrong!"

Chronos placed a hand on his shoulder, "I'm sorry Harry, that is the system we live under. You'll have to talk to the Big Woman if you think it should be changed."

"Big Woman?"

"God."

"Wait, God is a woman?" Harry asked in confusion.

"God's Incarnation is a woman, the office is still officially referred to as He or Him but that is mostly out of tradition. She doesn't seem to mind or she would have made sure to let them know by now. In any case Harry, I'm sure her soul will be recycled once you get her to purgatory."

Harry's watch beeped and he checked the timer to see that he now had 8 minutes to meet his next client. "I guess I don't have time to get emotionally involved...this is hard!"

"Not what you signed up for huh? Oh wait you didn't sign up for anything." Chronos said with a smile. "Now before I go, if you ever need me push both buttons at once, that causes a bit of a ripple in time and space and I'll come to you as soon as I can, sooner maybe since in reality I will know before you do that you are pushing them."

Harry had been examining the soul and looked up sharply at that, "Go? Wait a minute I'm not ready for this yet!"

Chronos was nowhere to be seen.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective**_

_**owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way**_

_**associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.**_

**Harry Potter and the Incarnation of Death:**

**Chapter Two:**

His watched beeped again and he cursed to himself at being left alone after such a brief introduction into Death 101. "Six minutes already? Time fly's...Wait!"

Harry looked at his watch and pushed the bottom button and suddenly the world around him came to a standstill. He took a few moments to appreciate the strangeness of birds suspended in mid flight, and ambulance coming around the corner with its lights frozen. You could actually see the beams of light as they extended a short distance from the source before spreading out into the atmosphere. "Wicked..."

Another beep and Harry checked his watch, only to find that the timer was reminding him not warning him he'd lost another minute. He quickly jogged across the street to Mortis the Cadillac and hopped into the drivers seat still holding the soul. "What do I do with this?"

The monitor in the dash changed to a diagram of a stick figure folding another stick figure carefully and placing it into a pouch. Harry felt the belt around his waste and found a similar pouch so he gently folded the soul material until it was smaller than a galleon and placed it into the pouch. "Thank you Mortis, whoever the last guy was seems to have included an instruction manual of some kind, either that or you've just seen it done so often you could show me. Well...how about we get this show on the road then? Next appointment please."

Mortis' engine came to life and he quickly pulled a U-turn and took flight as he went around the corner. The world seemed to blur around and beneath him until the monitor beeped and a map of the US appeared quickly zooming in toward the center of the country. St. Louis appeared to be the destination and the world slowed back into view as they passed the Arch and landed on a highway nearby. Mortis followed along until he took an off ramp and slowed to a stop outside of a corner bar.

Harry exited the vehicle and followed his compass into the bar and over to a corner booth, He found it strange that it was so quiet until he remembered to let time flow again. As he pushed the button he world came on and the noise returned much like turning on the telly. And he was now looking at a rather depressed looking fellow who appeared to be several drinks into snockered. The man looked up suddenly and stared directly into Harry's eyes...or the sockets where his eyes should have been.

"Oh...its just you, come to take me away finally I see."

Startled, Harry looked around to make sure nobody else could see him before quickly palming his wand and casting a notice-me-not around the table and sitting down. "You can see me?"

"What, I've got eyes don't I, you think I can't see you?" The man said in a slurred and depressed tone.

"Your British?"

"How astute, of course I'm British, that's part of the problem then isn't it? Visa expiring, wife and children dead and nothing left to live for, too much of a coward to kill myself and too smart to kill myself even if I were brave enough."

Harry checked his watch and saw that he still had 3 minutes left so he summoned a bottle of whiskey the bartender had just sat down and a couple of glasses. "I'm Harry and its a pleasure to meet a fellow Brit."

Only as he held his hand out to shake did he realize just how awkward that must be for the other man, and indeed the other man had a raised eyebrow. "You'll understand if I'm not overly thrilled to meet you, then again what kind of a name is Harry for the Grim Reaper? But then I suppose Marvin isn't all that great a name either."

The specter of Death raised the glass to his lipless mouth and somehow managed not to spill a drop, so Marvin followed suit. "So what brings you here?" Harry asked.

"Never had any children and my wife died."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be, that was the second happiest day of my life." Marvin said, still sounding as if his puppy was just run over.

Harry nearly choked at that remark but luckily recovered with just a cough, "Bloody...what was the most happy day of your life then?"

Marvin sighed, "Today of course, I've been ready to die for years and now I finally get to. So how long have I got?"

Harry checked his watch, "About two minutes left looks like."

"Are you sure you can't take me early? I've rather grown bored of living."

"Well," Harry said while scratching his jawbone, "I'm actually sort of new at this and I wouldn't want to screw anything up by taking you early, sorry."

Marvin slumped in his seat and poured another shot of whiskey, "Oh well, I suppose it can't be helped. Just like the rest of my miserable life. What do you mean you're new at this? People have been dying forever."

"Well you're actually only my second client, I just got the job today."

"Do you have to pick up all of your clients yourself? That's an awfully big job, must be really exciting...something I can't say about my life."

"No, well I mean, I just deal in cases where a person won't go to Heaven or Hell by themselves when they die, my Will sort of takes care of those without me thinking about it, at least that's what I was told."

"Oh bollocks, I had to get the Trainee on my last day on earth. Bugger my life, would you just take me now so I don't have to think about just how fitting an end this is for me?"

Checking his watch one more time Harry shrugged, "Well it was nice talking to you..I guess?"

"Whatever."

Harry reached into the mans chest and caught hold of his soul, pulling it out gently as his body lay back against the booth. He folded the man's soul quickly and putting him into the pouch. Before standing up and canceling the spell around the booth. He heard the waitress call for someone to call an ambulance just as he walked out of the door and climbed back into Mortis.

"Well that was...odd, I thought people weren't supposed to see me unless I made myself known to them."

The monitor in the dash displayed a bit of text and Harry leaned forward to read it:

THOSE WHOM HAVE BUSINESS WITH DEATH, OR THOSE WHO HAVE SEER IN THEIR BLOOD MAY PERCIEVE THE INCARNATION OF DEATH WITHOUT HIS ACTIVELY MAKING HIS PRESCENCE KNOWN.

Harry nodded and then looked puzzled for a moment...as puzzled as a skull can look, "So can you actually talk to me then Mortis?"

THIS UNIT IS A DUMMY NODE OF THE CENTRAL COMPUTER IN PURGATORY. IT IS CAPABLE OF RECOGNIZING SPEECH BUT NOT OF CONVERSATION. PLEASE STATE YOUR NEXT INQUIRY.

"Just a bloody computer then, I never did understand these things beyond Dudders playing video games on his before he traded it for drugs."

UNABLE TO PROCESS QUERY, PLEASE RESTATE.

"Never mind, when do I get a break? That is, when do I get to knock off for the evening?"

EVENING IS DETERMINED BY YOUR CURRENT LOCATION ON THE GLOBE, THE INCARNATION CAN HOWEVER PAUSE HIS SCHEDULE IN ORDER TO EAT OR SLEEP OR TO DELIVER CLIENTS TO PURGATORY FOR PROCESSING.

"Oh yeah!" Harry said smacking himself in the forehead, "The other button...well lets make one more stop before heading back to..um..."

PURGATORY

"Right, so next client please Mortis?"

The car pulled out of its parking and onto the road and rose into the air as it went around the next corner. Once in the air it accelerated and Harry checked his watch to see that he now had twelve minutes until his next pick-up was scheduled so he let the horse/car do its thing rather than stopping time at least for the moment. It didn't take him long to get bored however.

He checked the center dash and found the radio, turning it on he only seemed to get a couple of channels and they were all talk. Finally settling in on one just for the white noise it would provide he lay back and thought about what a crazy day it had been and just how he felt about his new job.

_And watch out folks there is a new Incarnation in town. Sources tell us that Harry Potter has taken over for Zane, our former Incarnation of Death. Harry Potter as some of you will remember is known as the Boy Who Lived for not coming to his own end at Zanes hands 24 years ago when the Dark Lord Tom Riddle killed his mother and father. Recently Harry managed to outlast his tormentor when the mortal government of England declared war on the British Wizarding World and blew it to tiny pieces. However there is a twist, as former Dark Lord and recently discorporated wraith Tom Riddle, now resides inside of Harry Potter thanks to a soul anchor which was accidentally placed within him during that attack which killed his parents. _

"Bloody Hell!" Harry said sitting up straight.

The monitor in the dash came to life with an image of a red skinned man with horns and pointed teeth replacing the GPS map. "Don't mind them, the news on PNN is rather personalized. You get used to it."

"Um...thank you? And who might you be?"

"You mean you don't recognize me? Well that is most certainly a breath of fresh air, then again I suppose you never really subscribed to the religion of your relatives or really, needed to think of anything more evil than Tom Riddle. I suppose you didn't have much time to ponder an afterlife either so I won't blame you."

"Uh..sorry?"

The man rolled his eyes and smiled, "Where are my manner? You might recognize me as the face of evil? The Dark One? Pyra Traho Merit?"

"Lucifer?"

The Dark One shook his head, "No no, he was way before my time, you can feel free to call me Jim though."

"Before your time?"

"Lucifer, Mephistopheles, The Devil; all predecessor's of mine. Each new Incarnation of Evil takes a new name. I kinda struggled coming up with mine and settled on Pyra Trahomerit but it hasn't exactly caught on yet, I suppose you can still call me Satan since that's who I took over for, but I'd really rather you call me Jim."

"Why does that sound Latin?" Harry asked, completely setting aside the fact that he was speaking to the personification of Evil with a capital 'E'. After all, who would want to talk to Death if they were given the choice?

Pyra grinned devilishly, "I love it when someone picks up on that! It roughly translates to 'Respect me as I drag you through the fire'." As Harry pulled a face he lost his smile, "What? I told you I had trouble coming up with it! I only had like 2 minutes to decide!"

"Oh...okay...so...Jim...not to be rude, but why are you calling me?"

There was a poof of red smoke that smelled a bit of brimstone, and the man was sitting in the passenger seat, "Because I thought it would be rude to just pop by without calling first. So lets do the thing properly, I'm Jim and you are?" He finished, holding out his hand.

Harry cautiously reached his hand out and shook the hand which was pleasantly warmer than he expected. "You still haven't explained why you are here though."

"I like to meet with the new Incarnations personally, and I won't lie, I usually have some sort of test ready for them. But after the last round of Incarnations I've had quite enough and honestly, for reasons I cannot explain to you at the moment, I can't really do anything to affect your work or bend you to my will anyway. It is actually rather nice to just be myself for once since I have no alternative."

Harry checked his watch and saw that he only had four minutes left. "Okay, um, I mean, I'm a regular guy just doing a job here and many people hate Death. So I guess I should give you the benefit of the doubt... But I do have a job to be doing so can we pick this up some other time?"

"Of course of course, just give me a buzz when you have a spare moment. I look forward to talking more with you Harry."

Much like a Cheshire cat his body dissolved into red smoke leaving only his smile which then dissolved as well and the cloud faded from sight. The monitor beeped at him and showed a frowning face. "I know Mortis, but its not like I accepted any favors or made a deal with the devil or something."

THE INCARNATION YOU ARE DEALING WITH IS PYRA. DEVIL WAS ONE OF SATAN'S PREDECESSORS.

"I wasn't talking to you Computer! Wasn't that Mortis showing me how to fold a soul earlier?"

AFFIRMATIVE

"Then how do I turn off the Central Computer function and get the horse back?"

A stick figure diagram showed up with a finger pressing a button and an arrow pointing at the corner of the screen. Harry looked and found a button labeled LINK and pressed it.

"Is it gone? I never liked those things except for playing video games when Dudders wasn't watching."

A smiley face blinked onto the screen.

"Alright Mortis," Harry could feel his brain trying to leak out of his ears, too much had happened in too short of a time span and he needed time to process it all. "Can we go back to this Purgatory place so I can get my head on straight?"

The car lurched into motion heading straight up through the clouds, as they broke through he reverted to Horse form and Harry was suddenly reminded of riding Buckbeak with the wind whipping his hair and cloak behind him. He grinned at the memory until he remembered that Hermione was gone, now feeling depressed again he almost missed it when the horse landed in an open field and began grazing. It had been a few long minutes of brooding before he finally dismounted and looked around.

The plains he had landed on extended out in all directions with an odd sort of disappearing into gray mist, he realized after a few minutes what it was that was disconcerting, there was no horizon, no tell tail curvature that indicated he was on the planet any longer. He spotted a house that hadn't been there before as he completed a 360 degree turn. "Is that home?" He asked the horse.

Mortis looked up at him and did the equivalent of a horse-nod before going back to his grazing, so Harry walked toward the building. At the front door he paused, not knowing the proper way to introduce himself, after all this had been his predecessor's home only an hour ago. Finally he settled on knocking.

The door opened shortly after and a bored looking older man appraised him with an arched eyebrow. "Good afternoon Master Thanatos, we've been expecting you." He then turned aside to let Death cross the threshold.

"Um...thank you..." he drew the last word out trying to get a name.

"Jefferson, Jefferson Wilshire sir."

Harry walked in and looked around the manor house. While the outside had reminded him of a funeral parlor, the inside was remarkably well appointed. His Aunt Petunia would have been green with envy.

Jefferson interrupted his musing, "May I take your cloak sir?"

"What? Oh!" Harry had forgotten he had his death regalia on and quickly dropped the hood and began taking off the gloves and footwear. The butler collected them neatly over one arm and turned to leave the room.

Harry walked in sock feet to what appeared to be the living room and sat down in the comfortable looking armchair facing the television. Finding the remote on the table he turned on the device and leaned back closing his eyes. Trying to sort out everything that had happened in the past hour.

_In our top story, people all over the world are suffering as they wait for Deaths touch. Thanatos as you may have heard was recently replaced by Harry Potter after having killed the former occupant of the office. Harry appears to be relaxing in his mansion with no regard for the suffering of the people._

Harry opened his eyes in alarm and looked at his watch which was by now, a full minute over the timer for his next pickup. He quickly pressed the button to pause his schedule and watched as the timer reset itself to zero.

_It looks like we may have reported a bit too soon, the suffering has ended and Death is taking a well deserved rest after a hard first day of training. He successfully took his first two souls without missing a beat, Fate was rather happy with the replacement of former Incarnation, Zane, who it is reported has finally joined his beloved Luna in Heaven. _

"Did he just say Luna?" Harry asked out loud, finding that quite the coincidence and honestly, not putting it past Luna to be the consort of his predecessor.

_The Luna in question should not be confused with his friend in life, Luna Lovegood who is a favorite of Mother Nature. Luna Kaftan is the Granddaughter of Niobe, one of the aspects of Fate and Niece of Orb, the current Green Mother and the the former Incarnation of Evil, Parry (also known as Satan). You will all remember the inter family fight involving Luna and Orb several decades ago which led __directly to so many close family members being raised to their Incarnation Offices...  
_

Harry turned off the scary-real-time-and-personal news before going back to his thoughts.

Everyone he cared about (with the exception of Luna Lovegood) was dead.

He'd wanted to end his life, in order to take Tom Riddle with him

At the thought of his name the annoying voice in his head began ranting again, how whether Harry realized it or not he had finally helped Tom to achieve immortality. As long as his soul resided inside Harry, he could not die! Harry was immortal and therefore, Voldemort was immortal!

"Shut Up! I've had enough of you whispering bullshit into my head!"

The spirit of Tom Riddle instantly shut up again, though Harry could almost feel him struggling to yell back. Harry smiled, wondering idly if his new status as Death meant he could control the dead?

Everyone he cared about was dead (except Luna Lovegood, not to be confused with Luna Kaftan..whoever that was)

He took Tom with him into Death, though not quite the way he expected.

He killed Death Itself, and subsequently, he was now Death Itself

Chronos was helpful, but annoyingly disappeared after convincing him to take the job.

Chronos reminded him of someone he couldn't quite put his finger on...

"Pardon me sir, but there is a caller for you at the door. Would you like me to show her in?"

Harry looked up at his...servant? Butler? "Um...sure?"

"Very well sir."

Jefferson disappeared for a moment and a beautiful woman walked in, long flowing blond hair with hints of vines running through it. Bright green eyes and a slight green tint to her skin. The woman smiled and Harry swore he could feel the sun and wind blowing over his skin the way it did when he was on a broom. He surmised, based on the available information, that this must be Mother Nature.

He quickly stood and bowed to her. "My Lady Gaea..."

She giggled musically and it reminded him somehow of rain falling in a forest, "Please Harry, while some may say I am one of the Greater Incarnations, in truth Death and Nature are not only closely linked, but equals in most things. In fact, while I am in your domain I am somewhat at your mercy."

He raised his head and looked at her, "At my mercy?"

She nodded and gestured to a chair, silently asking for permission to sit, he nodded and sat on the couch facing her. "Yes Harry, every Incarnation has complete control over their own domain. Normally I would not leave mine for a social visit. Indeed I am a very busy woman and normally, I make others come to me...to ensure they are properly...humbled before asking me a favor."

"Then why..." he began.

"Why am I humbling myself to meet you in your own domain?" he nodded dumbly and she smiled, "To be honest, things have quieted down quite a lot in the past few decades and I remembered how much it meant to me to have the other Incarnations pay me a visit when I first took the office. Granted I had a bit of foreknowledge which you unfortunately do not."

His eyes widened, thanking the news report silently, "Ah! So you are Orb, daughter of Fate?"

She smiled in response, "Isn't the news reporting so much more informative than anything they have in the mortal realm?"

"Apparently so..." he agreed, "I don't have any idea..." he tried to tell her he was lost as to what to talk about and she took pity on him.

"I daresay the office of Death is probably the hardest one to ascend to. Each of the others have some choice...and in fact are normally somewhat screened for beforehand. My husband possibly being an exception."

"Your husband...Satan? How does that work?"

She smiled knowingly at him, "Parry and I had a most unusual courtship, and while we were not able to openly consort any longer once we were married and I was raised to office, that hasn't been a problem for several years. Satan gave up his office to Pyra in the eighties and I am forever grateful to finally have my husband to myself. Even if I do have to still visit him in Hell."

Harry wasn't quite sure what to make of all this information, it seemed oddly personal. "Well..um...congratulations?"

Her eyes twinkled in mirth, "The new guy is absolutely awful about paperwork, so Parry is acting as his personal assistant. Although that seems to be the trend amongst the Dark Ones, they all end up in senior management positions after they are removed from office."

Harry shivered, "Honestly, paperwork is its own sort of Hell if you ask me."

Mother Nature laughed and it was musical, the sound flowed through him and revitalized him in a way that reminded him of pepper-up potion combined with his Patronus.

"I didn't realize the joke was that funny?" Harry asked her turning his head to the side.

She tried to collect herself but seemed to be lost in a giggling fit, "Oh Harry, I am so happy to have you in this office, you say the funniest things. Actually, that is almost word for word what Pyra said when he took over!"

None of this was helping Harry understand what was happening to him, "So was this really just a social visit? Or do you have some other items to discuss."

She beamed at him, "Actually, this is very much just a social visit. I don't do it often enough, but having my husband available to me more than once or twice a month does wonders for a girls mood. I just wanted to welcome you personally to our little family," She giggled again at her own joke, "And I hope you enjoy your time in office."

Harry frowned at that, "How can I enjoy taking life? I've managed to okay so far...but if we know these things are going to happen to people far enough ahead to set a schedule then why can't we just put a stop to it?"

Orb stopped her laughing and pinned him with her eyes, "Harry, can you imagine a world where nothing and nobody dies? Children would still be born and soon the world would be overflowing in population. There is still free will as well to consider, we could possibly stop anyone from dying...indeed that is your right as the Incarnation of Death, but people are going to get hurt...people are going to die, and sometimes Death is the kindest thing you can offer a person. Death is part of Nature Harry, and Nature is part of Death. Our two offices enable the other to exist, without you Nature would quickly run out of control, and without Nature, Death would have no purpose. If you'd really like a rundown of how it all works you should speak to Fate."

"And that would be your mother?" Harry asked, trying to change the subject.

She nodded, "My mother has actually been two of the aspects of fate, one of the only Incarnations to have held more than one office, though due to a snarl in her tapestry another has surpassed even her accomplishment. Speaking of..."

Harry followed Orbs eyes to the middle of the room where a spider was coming down a line of web, what concerned him was that it appeared to be growing in size. He drew his wand instinctively, fearing it was some sort of Acromantula, until the spider shifted forms somehow into a middle aged but still lovely woman who grinned at him. "Hello Harry."

"Um...Hello?" He was beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed with all the visitors.

"Harry I'd like you to meet Lachesis the middle aspect of Fate, also known as my mother, Naomi."

Harry stood and bowed once more and the woman rolled her eyes and sat on the couch between where he had been sitting, and her daughter. "Hello dear, it has been too long since we have gotten together for a social visit hasn't it?" She said to Orb.

Harry was trying to remember his mythology, if this was the middle aspect of Fate then she represented the present, the other two being the past and the future. He didn't remember much else about the Fates besides a portrayal of them as hags in some cartoon he'd watched. Obviously reality was much kinder. "So is everyone going to just drop by today?" He asked them.

"Oh goodness!" Lachesis said with a frown, "I do apologize for just dropping in on you uninvited, the least I could have done was use the door."

"No...its fine I suppose. This place doesn't really feel like home just yet in any case. I'm not even sure where the bedroom or the bathroom are, I haven't made it past the living room yet." He said sitting back down.

"I was still in the wrong dear, and look at me not even introducing the rest of us to you."

"The rest of whom?" he asked.

Lachesis seemed to shift until suddenly a beautiful Asian girl was sitting in on the couch. "Hello Harry," The girl reminded him remarkably of Cho, "My name is Clotho, it's nice to meet you."

His tongue seemed glued to the top of his mouth so he only nodded to her before she shifted again and an old black woman was in her place speaking with an American accent.. "And I am Atropos, pleased to make your acquaintance."

He shook his head, "I'm never going to get used to this..."

"You think you have it bad sonny, you should try being us! Imagine having more than one person inside your head. Not that I mind the company most of the time, and it does have it's benefits when Clotho goes to meet with Chronos."

Atropos shifted back to Lachesis who was blushing, "Do not go airing our dirty laundry old woman! Honestly..." She seemed to look far away for a moment before shifting once more to Clotho. "Harry...I.." The girl blushed for some reason, and Harry blushed right back at her, she was remarkably beautiful, "I have to apologize but this isn't really a social call, Orb might have lied a bit about that."

The woman in question only looked him in the eye and winked, causing him to blush again for some reason. Clotho continued, "You see...I am ready to return to my life...I want to have children and I'm afraid I can't do that as an Incarnation."

Harry was confused, "I'm not sure I understand how I can help...I'm the Incarnation of Death, not Life..." To be honest, this could be one of his powers and he would have no clue.

The girl shook her head, "No you see, this actually has nothing to do with you being an Incarnation and everything to do with the girl we have picked to be my replacement."

"Oh?" he really had no clue where this was going.

Orb took pity on him, "Harry, we'd like you to come with us, to convince Luna Lovegood to take up the office."

"Luna? Really?" He asked in shock, it would be nice having a friend close by. "Didn't I hear something about her being a favorite of yours Orb?"

Mother Nature grinned, "Oh that girl is absolutely marvelous, she can see the things I have only dreamed of creating. Her seer blood will be an absolutely wonderful boon to the office of Fate."

Harry was confused again, "But...if you are Fate...then don't you already know what is going to happen? What good would a Seer do?"

Clotho became Lachesis again, "Fate weaves the tapestry, we render souls from the void, lay them in precise patterns, and measure each one to fit perfectly within the tapestry. But we do not control free will. Each person can do what they wish with their lives within the boundaries of the tapestry. Every once in a while there will be a tangle in the skein and a thread which crosses many others will need the interference of Incarnations to straighten things back out. You yourself are such a tangle Harry."

"Me? But I'm not anything special!"

Lachesis shook her head, "Where do you think Prophecy comes from Harry? Only those very important threads, those which affect so many others just by their presense, require personal attention from us. I know you had a hard life Harry and I am sorry, we could not prevent he death of your parents, nor the abuse you received at the hands of your relatives..."

Gaea interrupted as lightning flashed and thunder shook the house, "I absolutely despise the Dursleys Harry, they are the worst of Humanity and I begged often for mother to intercede."

"Unfortunately, all we could do was push events towards correcting the tangle that was your life, else the entirety of the Tapestry may have come unraveled."

Harry sat silently for a few moments, contemplating everything he had been told. It appeared that while his life was hard, as many times as he'd referred to himself as 'Fates Bitch' in all reality, Fate had done everything she could to make his life easier.

"Actually Harry...besides Luna there is another matter you can help me with." Lachesis said.

He looked up, "What's that?"

Naomi put her fingers together in a box before pulling them apart and revealing a woven magical tapestry between the corners of her hands. "You can see your thread here Harry." She directed him to a place where a new golden thread was laid amongst many red and blue ones with a silver one running along side it. "The gold signifies that this is an Incarnation and no longer affects the rest of the tapestry, it did not turn gold until you chose to take on the office, before that it was silver. You can see where your line begins here in 1980..."

Harry noted the golden line, which disappeared off the top of the skein and seemed to double back once before returning to the top and disappearing again. Lachesis zoomed in on that first single golden line with the parallel silver line and began to follow it. "One year later, when your parents died and Tom Riddle was defeated for the first time, you can see the silver get tangled with the gold. That is where the prophecy took hold, forever tangling your lives."

"Neither can live while the other survives." he quoted the prophecy.

She nodded, "Indeed, however if we fast forward to this year," The fabric zoomed along, following the golden and silver threads, "We can finally fix was Tom Riddle did to mess with my Tapestry!"

Harry looked intrigued, "By creating the horcruxes...did that remove him from the tapestry the same way an Incarnation is?"

"Not exactly, you see..." She moved the skein back a large distance to show him another golden thread, "This is my thread Harry, you can see where I became Clotho," she fast forwarded, "and where I became mortal again in order to raise a family."

The thread went from gold back to red and wove itself back into the pattern. She then followed it quickly to a point where a gold thread appeared next to hers, "This is where Orb was born, her thread turned Gold when she became Mother Nature," another fast forward, "And you can see my thread turns gold again here and removes itself from the pattern when I became Lachesis."

She moved the skein again to show his current location "Now if we go back to this point in your thread you can see that although you are outside the tapestry, Tom Riddle's thread still weaves throughout the rest of it. It should have ended back in 1981, but the snarl simply could not be resolved until now. But we need the help of the Incarnation of Death to untangle this problem."

Harry was rather confused, but thought he'd followed most of that. "So what do you need me to do?"

Lachesis smiled, "You have the soul of Tom Riddle residing inside you, do you not?"

He frowned back at her, "I was his last Horcrux and he is insistent upon staying."

"Ah, but you know how to get a soul out of the body now don't you Thanatos?" Orb asked him conspiratorially.

Harry wanted to smack himself in the head, but thought that might seem rather immature in the presence of these four goddesses. Instead, he reached up toward his scar and dug his fingers through his forehead, it was a rather...uncomfortable process. He was a bit worried about pulling his own soul from his body but once he grabbed hold, he knew it was the right soul. Tom Riddle began screaming inside his head.

"Alright Tom, you old wanker! Get. Out. Of. My. HEAD!" Harry said as he pulled and the black and battered soul of Tom Marvollo Riddle slid out of him and into his hand, going silent as it fluttered into stillness. He looked at Fate, "So...what do I do with it?"

She smiled, "I do believe that soul is dark enough to find it's own way to Hell Harry."

Harry let Tom's soul go and watched as it sank directly through the floor and out of sight. Lachesis brought out a pair of scissors and snipped the silver thread at that point, he watched as the rest of the tapestry seemed to realign itself neatly.

"Thank you so much Harry! That bugger has been annoying me for the last 50 years!"

Harry found himself laughing...he suddenly felt...free for the first time he could ever remember. "It was my pleasure, I promise...so is he really gone?"

The television flipped itself on to reveal the red-skinned and horned face of Evil, "Harry! Well done! I've been waiting for this soul for a long time!" The camera panned back to show him holding a struggling Tom Riddle by the ear. "Don't worry Harry, there is a special place in Hell for people like him. You are welcome to come visit anytime you want and see his punishment for yourself. I'm not sure there is anything you could think of that I already haven't, but Hey! I'm always up for a brainstorming session."

"Pyra, you know you aren't supposed to just drop in like this." Orb chided the man.

"Now Gaea, I am only following your mothers example." Naomi blushed but looked angry with him,

"Listen here Pyra, I was trying to locate my daughter, she just happened to be in his living room!"

The devil shrugged it off, "Yes but at least all Harry has to do to get rid of me is turn off the television set."

Harry did just that, cutting off the personification of evil, before turning back to his guests. "I know that was rude..."

Orb grinned, "I'm sure he was expecting it Harry, and honestly, it was nice of him to show you that your tormentor was now going to be tormented. Parry did well in choosing his replacement, his administration and this one are doing wonders to show that, while it may be his job to attract as many souls as possible away from God, he doesn't have to go easy on them for doing the things that land them in Hell in the first place."

Lachesis nodded, "I have to agree with my daughter dear, while Pyra can be a bit annoying at times, he is leaps and bounds better than some of the previous Evil Incarnations. Much more Lucifer than Beelzebub."

Harry thought he was just getting a handle on things when they started going off on tangents again...he put his head in his hands, "Ladies...this has been very informative but I think I just need more time to process. Do you think we could wait until tomorrow to approach Luna?"

Lachesis grinned, "So you'll help?"

He smiled back, "I think it would be wonderful to have Luna around, she might be able to help me make sense out of all this chaos."

Orb and Naomi stood up and headed toward the front door with Harry following them, "Alright Harry, first thing tomorrow morning?" Naomi asked.

"Promise." he said with a smile.

"I'll make sure my mother knocks this time, of course." Orb said with a grin.

Lachesis scowled at her, "I'm telling you it was an honest mistake!"

Harry watched as the two left arguing before closing the door behind him. He wasn't sure if an Incarnation actually needed sleep, but he could definitely use some peace and quiet. "Jefferson, is there a bed somewhere around here I could fall into?"

Jefferson nodded, "This way sir."

**A/N: Yes, I know it was a very wordy chapter, with lots of background info. To be honest if you didn't follow all of it that's okay, it was mostly a nod to those who already know the crossover series and an intro to the nepotism that currently runs through the Incarnations. I didn't even get into God (Natures Daughter, Wars Daughter, Fates Granddaughter, Times Lover (at one...time), Former Evils stepdaughter and the Cousin of Luna Kaftan, The previous Death's wife.)**


	3. Chapter 3

_**Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective**_

_**owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way**_

_**associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.**_

**Harry Potter and the Incarnation of Death:**

**Chapter Three:**

Harry woke on his own what felt like days later and scrambled out of bed, worried that he had missed his meeting with the two (four?) goddesses to see a girl about a job. He rushed out of the bedroom and into the kitchen calling for the butler.

"Jefferson!"

The man seemed to appear from nowhere, "Yes sir?"

"Why didn't you wake me? What time is it? How long was I out?"

The proper English Butler didn't even bat an eyelash, "Four hours sir."

"Four...really?"

"Yes sir, you will find that as an Incarnation you really have no need of sleep though many enjoy resting themselves out of habit. Would you like some tea sir?"

Harry nodded and tried to remove the gobsmacked look from his face, "Um, yes please. Strong with honey and milk?"

"Of course sir, would you prefer the dining room or the living room?" Jefferson asked.

"The dining room I think, I haven't seen half the rooms in this house yet, might as well make a point of it."

The older gentleman nodded, "As you say sir, the dining room is through that door. I will be in shortly with your drink. Would you like something to eat as well?"

Harry had to think about it for a moment, while he wasn't really hungry he figured it might be a while before he would get the chance to eat again. "Perhaps a sandwich...and some soup?"

"Of course sir, if you would?" he gestured to the door and Harry walked into the other room.

Inside he found an ebony table and chairs with bone white china place settings. The walls were a deep blood red and the chandelier held several brightly glowing candles giving the room a dark look that reminded him of everything Grimmauld Place wished it could be. As he sat he began to wonder about some of the other details of his new life he had yet to discover, and thinking of Grimmauld Place let him to thoughts of his Godfather; and through him, to his parents.

Jefferson appeared in the doorway with a tea cup of the same bone china and a plate with a metal cover over the top. Setting both in front of Harry he removed the shield to reveal a Turkey sandwich and a steaming bowl of tomato soup. "Thank you Jefferson, it looks delicious."

"My pleasure sir, will that be all?"

Harry took a bite of his sandwich as he thought through several things, "Actually...would you mind if I asked a few questions? I'm rather new to all of this."

"Ask and I shall answer to the best of my knowledge." The man replied.

"Alright, first of all...you seemed to know I was coming?"

Jefferson nodded, "Your predecessor had been looking a bit down lately, I recognized the signs that he was thinking of moving on. I do not believe he intentionally allowed you to take his office, but I would not put it past his subconscious to have been looking for a way out. I did not know for certain that you were coming, but it was not a surprise."

Harry pondered that for a moment, "And you just...let me take his place? New boss same as the old?"

"Those who serve the Incarnations are normally souls doomed to Purgatory to work off the evil on their souls in order to move on to Heaven. I have served Thanatos for many years now, I serve the office, not the office holder."

"That's the second time someone has mentioned souls serving in Purgatory, are there many of you?"

The man nodded again, "There is a bit of a queue at the Central Administration Building, many souls wait there in perpetual boredom for a chance to serve. Those with an organization or administrative background tend to serve in those capacities. I serve in death as I did in life."

The mention of the Central Office reminded Harry of the souls in his belt pouch. "I'm going to need to drop off a few things there...can you tell me how to find the place?"

"Things in Purgatory tend to be relative distances from one another, if you need to go there it will be whichever direction you decide to travel when you leave this house."

Harry took a few spoon fulls of his soup, "This is really good!"

"Thank you sir, a recipe I acquired in life. The Queen was quite fond of it."

"Queen Elizabeth?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Queen Anne actually, I was in queue for quite some time."

"Oh...well it is still quite good, I'm honored to have the Queens Butler serve me."

"As you say sir."

Harry took another bite of his sandwich as he though of other questions to ask, "Did the old Thanatos spend much time here? You say we don't really need to sleep, I assume we really don't need to eat either."

"Lord Zane spent most of his off hours with the Lady Luna at her home in the mortal realm. You are correct to assume that you do not really need to eat as an Incarnation. Most of the human body functions are suspended once you assume office. However as I said, many prefer to 'go through the motions' as it were."

"So if I needed to, I could work around the clock...a blessing and a curse I suppose." Harry didn't wait for an answer as it wasn't really a question. "Right then...um... So, I'm the Grim Reaper..."

"Technically sir, you are Death itself, Grim Reapers work for you as an extension of your Will."

Harry raised an eyebrow at that, "You mean there are people out there waving scythes and taking souls?"

"Not for many centuries as I understand it sir, they would be more like plain clothes police officers now. If you would like I am sure the Central Computer could provide you with more information."

Harry pulled a face at that, "I really don't like that thing...it's annoying and impersonal. Do I have a secretary or something? I'm guessing the Computer can't do the scheduling all on it's own or there wouldn't be much need for souls working in administrative roles at the Central Office?"

"Correct sir, there is an Office of Death at the Central Building. I believe the assistant you are thinking of is named Cynthia. She is the one that placed me in the role I now serve."

Looking down he realized he had eaten everything on his plate and glanced at his watch, 'Morning' when he was supposed to meet the other Incarnations was still at least three hours away. He decided he should stop by the Central Building and drop off the souls he had already collected and possibly drop by his own Office.

"Thank you Jefferson, I think I'll head out early. Where is my...costume?"

"Your articles of office are freshly cleaned and hanging by the front door sir. If that will be all?"

Standing up he nodded to the butler and walked through the other opening from the Dining Room into the hallway and found his things just as Jefferson had described them. He quickly got dressed and pulled his hood up before leaving to learn more about the world he had stepped into.

He saw Mortis munching on clover not far away from the front door and waved, the horse twitched an ear in his direction but didn't stop his activity. Turning to his left he began walking, following Jefferson's instructions to simply decide he needed to be at the Central office. Just as his home faded into the mist he saw a large building begin to appear in front of him and walked up the stairs and inside.

The lobby was done in white marble with gold veins running through it, not brown colored marble but actual gold. It matched the gold on the statues and fixtures around the room, walking toward a desk near the foot of the stairs he found a bored looking woman answering phones.

"Central Office, hold please. Central Office, hold please. Yes? May I help you?" She said as she noticed his approach.

"Yes...I'm looking for my office?"

"Up the stairs to to the left, first door on the right is the Office of Death. Central Office, hold please." She went back to answering her phones and ignored him.

He followed the directions and found a plain looking door with the name "Office of Death" stenciled in gold leaf on opaque glass. He turned the nob and walked in to find a rather large waiting room with a receptionist looking rather put out as she explained to a very pale man in a black and white pinstriped suit that it was not yet his turn. "NOW SERVING #61" She yelled over the mans shoulder.

"Look doll, don't you know who I am? The Ghost with the Most, the Dean of the Damned, the..."

"Sir, if you do not get back in line I'm afraid you will have to move to the back of the queue. Again!"

The man turned around mumbling only to have his tongue and eyes shoot out of his face comically before hanging near his chin. "Damn bub, do you have to sneak up on a brother like that? I thought I was scary but that is quite the getup!"

The receptionists eyes bugged out and she stood up suddenly, smiling. "Lord Thanatos! What an honor! What can I do for you today?"

The ghostly looking man had just finished shoving his eyeballs back into his head when he grinned sickeningly. "Thanatos! Just the man I wanted to see!" he leaned in conspiratorially, "Now just between you and me, this place could really use a bit of reorganization. I've been sitting in this stupid lobby for going on 20 years now!"

"And you will be here another 20 unless you SIT. DOWN!"

He turned to her, "Listen babe, men are talking here..." he turned back and eyeballed the specter of Death, "You are a man right?"

Harry nodded, not saying anything.

"Right, so how about you go ahead and use your position to help me out? Bump me up to the top of the list? Between you and me I had a sweet deal going on in Hell but I had to go and help this girl out and balance my soul a little too far to the middle, you know? I figure as long as I'm here I can get a hall pass to go back down to the mortals and raise a little Cain, or cane a little mortal, haven't been laid in years! I'm sure you know all about that though...are you all bones under that getup or can you still get it up?"

Harry was trying hard not to laugh, he liked this guy for some reason, however one look at the receptionist told him he had better not give out any favors like the guy was asking. He simply pointed back at an empty seat and stared at him.

"Really? Just like that? You didn't even get my name!"

"Now listen here Mr Beetlejuice..."

"That's once! Come on hotcakes, say it again?"

"Mr Beetlejuice so help me..."

"Alright, that's twice!"

The girl seemed to know what he was asking for and smiled evilly, "Mr Beetleguy, I'll need you sit down. NOW. Or it will be 40 YEARS before I call your name again!"

The man turned from her mumbling about the unfairness of it all, Harry thought he might have flipped him the bird but wasn't sure as his attention was back on the receptionist. "I'm looking for Cynthia?" he said quietly.

"Of course sir! Right this way!"

She led him down the hall to a large office, smiling the whole way, before knocking on the open door. "Cindy, there is someone here to see you."

"I'm busy right now Melinda, put him on the waiting list."

"Cindy you don't understand...its Him."

The woman looked up from her paperwork, "Him. Who?"

Harry walked into the office and Cindy's eyes widened before she stood, "OH! Him! Good..." She checked the clock on the wall, "..morning sir! I'd heard you had replaced Zane and I hoped you'd stop by. That will be all Melinda."

The girl was staring at him adoringly...a bit creepily to be honest, she reminded Harry of the fan girls that used to play with Harry Potter dolls...into their twenties. "MELINDA!"

"Of course! Have a nice day!" She said to him with a wink.

Cindy walked around the desk and offered him her hand which he took...marveling again that he could feel her warm hand through the bone of his gloves. "Please don't mind Melinda...she's been hoping to score a better job with you since she started working here, unfortunately for her Zane only had eyes for Luna."

Harry raised an eyebrow...before realizing she couldn't see and put his hood down, "There are positions like that?" he asked incredulously.

She offered him a chair, which he took and she sat in another near him, "The souls of Purgatory serve the needs of the Incarnations...whatever those needs are. Zane's predecessor had three concubines, all of whom happily moved on to heaven after he lost his office. Now, what can I do for you today Master Thanatos?"

"Call me Harry, please. At least when we are alone."

She smiled, "Of course Harry, so what can I do for you?"

He thought about that for a moment, "I'm not sure really, I just wanted to look around and get a feel for what goes on here. I know my 'Will' takes care of a lot of Death related tasks but I don't like leading an organization I don't really understand."

"Well let me see if I can explain it to you a bit better, shall I?" he nodded eagerly, "Simply by existing, by holding your office, you allow death to claim those who are ready to pass on. You are what is known as a Major Incarnation, there are several minor incarnations that serve your office. Plague, Pestilence, Famine, they all fall mostly under your purview. Though to some extent they also serve Mother Nature and War as the situation warrants. Your will is sufficient to take non-sentient creatures and other forms of life like plants and what have you, for human souls there are the Grim Reapers."

"I'd like to know more about the Reapers, I heard they are more like Plain Clothes officers than cloaked specters wielding scythes."

She nodded, "They are, though we still issue them the uniforms if they want them. Mostly that depends on the local management. Every population center has a collection of Reapers who do the day to day work of releasing the spirit from the body, hopefully before they die or just after, so that the soul can float up to heaven or sink to Hell on it's own."

"And you...I hear you are the one in charge of my schedule? How does that work when I pause things?" he asked.

"Well, its a bit mysterious, but with help from Chronos you are allowed to pause time and move through space without missing an appointment. If you put off your appointments for too long it will cause a backlog and I'd really rather not deal with that. However as part of your will there are creatures known as Gravelings which cause the deaths that are not natural causes. When you pause your schedule the Gravelings sense that they have to hold off on causing any mishaps for the target. They get cranky if they aren't allowed to do their jobs though and sometimes will cause minor catastrophe's once the clock starts again, taking several souls along with the target simply because they can. Fate does not appreciate having threads cut short without notice, so I hope you won't go more than a day here and there between reaping. I get an earful when the Gravelings act out."

"Why wouldn't she just yell at me for it? It obviously is not your fault if I don't follow the schedule!"

She smiled at him, "Nice of you to say so Harry, but in the end whether someone dies or not is your call and while the other Incarnations may...influence you... they really can't do much. It is in everyone's best interest for the Major Incarnations to get along. So they yell at me and I do my best to reorganize everything."

"Well then...as much as I hate taking lives...I'll try my best to keep you out of trouble," he said sheepishly.

"Thank you, now I know you only just took the job but you only took two souls yesterday. My schedule normally calls for at least five per day. There are surprisingly not all that many souls close enough to balance to need your direct intervention. All I ask is that you try to maintain a five per day quota so I don't get a backlog."

He nodded, "I'll get to it then, I can take a soul or two before I have to meet Fate and Gaea later... I do have a question though... would it be odd for me to drop in on a group of Reapers just to see how they go about their business?"

Cindy looked pensive, "It would definitely be...unusual...but I know an unusual group that might welcome you. I can send a note to their manager letting him know you are stopping by if you like. They are probably just as interested in how things work higher up the chain as you are about the lower."

"That would be great! Can you owl...er..."

She laughed, "We don't really do Owls around here Harry, but I can send you a text message."

"I don't have a phone..." he began.

"We can take care of that if you like, or I can send it to the terminal in Mortis."

He nodded, "Why don't you send it through Mortis then, I'm not sure about having a mobile just yet. I made it through my whole life without one, not sure why I need to start carrying one now."

She shook her head, "I have been working this job for nearly 200 years now and I have no clue how I ever managed without one before ten years ago!"

"200 years! Why haven't you moved on yet?" he asked in surprise.

"I worked off my debt long ago, but the longer I work here the higher up in Heaven I get to go. Most souls only work long enough to get out of this place, but from what I hear the lower levels of Heaven really aren't all that much fun. Just a lot of standing around and 'enjoying being in the Lords presence' stuff. Honestly I'm not sure the highest bits of Hell wouldn't be more entertaining, not that I'm itching to find out."

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Harry risked trying to apparate from Cindy's office rather than face that Beetleguy again, no matter how much he liked him. Luckily for him, either his status as an Incarnation meant he could move through the wards, or there were no wards in place. Most likely the latter, as a bunch of lost souls really weren't going anywhere and nobody should need to be kept out. He reappeared outside his front door with almost no noise, which he found amusing considering he had never really learned to apparate correctly, mostly picking it up on his own along the way. The result being he sounded like a bus backfiring during apparation in his old life.

Mortis raised an ear toward him and Harry turned that direction, "Alright boy, ready to get going? Cindy does not seem to be someone I should piss off, we've got at least five souls to pick up today."

As he was saying this he climbed into the saddle, noticing for the first time a folded weapon sticking up from a sheath on his right side. He pulled the odd curved handle from its home and whistled through his teeth at the blade on the end. He instinctively flicked his wrist and the blade snapped into place, leaving him holding five foot of curved wooden handle, with a three foot long scythe on the end looking more than a little ominous.

"Wizard." Harry said with a grin, before chuckling at himself.

He decided to play the part to the best of his abilities this time, he'd been rather embarrassed by Marvin after all. It wasn't HIS fault he was a trainee!

"Alright Mortis, lets head to the first appointment."

It was lucky for Harry that the magic of the saddle held him in place, because Mortis jumped into the air and down through the ground at sickening speeds. Harry gripped the scythe in one hand and the reigns in the other, whooping in joy the entire way down to the planet below.

As they landed in what seemed to be the west coast of the US, Harry remembered to press the button on his watch to restart his schedule. He checked the compass as Mortis began trotting down one of the main streets through town. It was now late night in this part of the world but he could see everything as if it were in perpetual twilight, possibly one of the benefits of being associated with Death. They stopped outside of a church and Mortis began grazing as Harry slipped from the saddle. There wasn't a soul around (he smiled at his unintended pun) so he began following the needle towards his destination.

It led him underground through a cave opening he wouldn't have known was there and down into a subterranean system of caverns and passageways. He made three turns and was completely lost, glad he could either apparate out or call Mortis for assistance, before he came upon a girl laying in a pool of water.

From what he could tell she was a pretty and petite blond cheerleader type. He sighed as he bent over her, "Hello there whoever you are, it looks like you must have drowned yourself down here. I wonder if it was an accident?"

He tried to find a pulse and as he was moving her hair, found the distinct fang marks of a vampire. "Oh..I'm very sorry miss, it looks like they drained you too far to turn you, or maybe not enough and you drowned on accident?" He checked his watch. "You have about two minutes left, but if you like I can go ahead and take you, that way you don' t have to suffer."

Yes, he realized he was talking to himself, but really, the girl seemed to him to be an innocent and he couldn't imagine what it was that was so dark about her that she was in balance. Then again he remembered the little girl with the broken neck who was carrying the burden of a sin she didn't even commit. He sighed and reached toward her only to be interrupted by two young men rushing into the room.

The younger one immediately rushed to the girl and pulled her from the water and onto her back as Harry watched. The older one...was staring at Harry with wide eyes. It only took a few seconds of observation for him to realize that the older man was a vampire, when you deal with them as spies for Voldemort you get a sense for them, this one seemed to be friendly though so Harry didn't jump to conclusions, he simply nodded to the vampire and looked back at the girl, glancing once at his watch to see that she had about a minute left until her appointment.

The younger man began CPR and Harry wished he could just let him know that it was pointless. But part of him hoped that his schedule could be wrong, that maybe this girl could be saved. Suddenly as his watch beeped an alarm at him, the girl on the floor spat up water and began coughing. Harry wanted to cheer!

"Buffy!" Both men shouted and the vampire ignored him as he went to the girl, Harry decided this was a good time to make his exit and quickly apparated silently back to Mortis.

The horse raised his head and eyeballed Harry, "What?" Harry asked him. "Looks like it wasn't her time after all." Mortis continued to stare at him, "Fine! I'll check with Cindy when we get back just to make sure the girl wasn't meant to die alright? It isn't like I saved her, or refused to take her or anything. She was gone, then she came back right as her appointment came due. Not. My. Fault."

Mortis whinnied and shook himself and Harry took that as his agreement not to bring it up again. While riding him was fun, Harry decided the pale horse was just a bit conspicuous for him. Normally he might not have cared but with vampires around, who could apparently see him, he decided it was best to be incognito. So he pressed the button on the saddle which turned him into the Cadillac and climbed inside. "Alright then Mortis, I guess we head for the next one before meeting up with Gaea and Fate."

The car shot off into the night and Harry pondered once again, everything he'd learned and everything that had happened to him in the last day and a half. The biggest being that he was going to see Luna again! Perhaps he should have been more surprised when they asked him to help gain her agreement to be an Incarnation, but with all the other wonky stuff that was happening it had barely occurred to him that she was dead. In fact, it didn't really surprise him at all that they could meet with the dead now that he was the Incarnation of Death. He wondered idly whether Luna was in Purgatory or Heaven, he couldn't believe she might have ended up in Hell.

Those thoughts led him to realize that he could see ALL of his friends again...and his family! Hermione, Ron, Sirius...his mom and dad...Remus and Tonks... Suddenly he was crying and very glad that he'd chosen to ride inside of Mortis rather than on top. He wiped the tears away with his cold bone fingers and took a deep breath. One more stop for a soul, then off to see Luna for the first time since she died, and then he'd find everyone else.

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Later, as Mortis galloped down to the Plains of Purgatory Harry noticed the two women waiting for him outside his home, they smiled as he dismounted and scratched Mortis behind the ears.

"Hello Harry," Orb said brightly as her mother smiled, "Are you ready to help us convince Luna?"

Harry grinned at that, "I am! I can't believe I've been here for two days and hadn't realized I could go meet my family and friends who already passed over. I can't wait to go!"

The women exchanged odd looks before Niobi spoke, "Harry...why do you think Luna is dead?"

Harry's eyes, if they could have seen them, widened comically, "What do you mean, 'Why do I think she is dead'? She died a while back when her house came crashing down."

Orb shook her head, "No Harry...she is in the long term ward at St Mungo's...who told you she had passed over?"

Harry's face closed up as he grabbed hold of his temper, "Dumbledore told all of us there were no survivors..." he sighed, "just another in a long line of his manipulations I guess. Couldn't have me distracted from being his weapon..."

Fate seemed to look up and to the right for a moment, having some sort of internal battle before Lachesis shifted and became Clotho, the girl stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him unexpectedly to comfort him. "I am so sorry Fate could not help you Harry," She pulled back, blushing, but did not let him go. He felt..oddly comfortable with the girl, "something tells me that man did not go to Heaven though I doubt he is in Hell. Perhaps when you get a chance you should look him up and give him a telling off?"

Harry nodded and smiled at her...not realizing how scary that was, "Thank you Clotho, I may just do that..." He took a breath and let her go, "So does that mean I can't find my parents? ...Hermione?"

For some reason Orb winced at Hermione's name, Clotho picked up the conversation through, "Of course you can go see your family Harry, as an Incarnation you can visit both Heaven and Hell if you wish, beware though, in either realm you are at the complete mercy of God and Pyra respectively."

Orb had moved past whatever caused her to stop, "And I assure you, my daughter won't cause you any trouble unless you deserve it."

"That's right!" Harry said, suddenly remembering. "So your daughter is the Incarnation of Good...but how does that work...having a um..." he got uncomfortable with the question, "Being the daughter of Satan and all?"

Orb laughed musically, "Oh Harry, you forget just how long our lives are and just how tangled the relationships of our family can be. Orlene is not Satan's daughter, she is the daughter of my first lover Mym. Also known as Mars, the Incarnation of War."

Harry's head was spinning, "Forgive me for saying this, but your family tree is more twisted than most Pureblood Wizards I know."

She laughed again and Clotho smiled at him sweetly, "Twisted and Kinkier than you imagine Harry." She said with a shy smile before stepping back and morphing into Lachesis again.

"Right then Harry, we can discuss my family and go see yours right after we convince Luna to join us." Fate said to him, suddenly all business.

"If you two will hold on to my sleeve I'll take us to her." Orb offered.

Harry did so but asked her a question, "Won't it be a bit odd, the three of us, especially ME," He said stressing what he meant by gesturing to himself in full Death regalia, "Just popping into a hospital? Besides, I can apparate to St Mungo's."

Orb grinned, "Oh but you don't want to miss this Harry, and don't worry about your outfit. Only those with business with you will see you."

With that she reached out and seemed to grab hold of the air and peel it up, as Harry watched it was like the page of a book turned and suddenly they were standing at the end of a bed in the St Mungo's long term care ward. Harry looked at the pillow and found the sleeping form of Luna Lovegood. "Luna..." he whispered softly.

Orb stepped to the other side of the bed as Harry went up to her right side, she touched Luna on the forehead and the girl opened her large blue eyes and blinked first at the smiling woman and turned to the robed Skeletal form of Death and stared at him for a long moment.

"Hello Harry."

He hid his surprise well, he'd long ago learned to just go with it. Luna saw the world in a completely different way that anyone else he knew, "Hello Luna."

"You know you really should eat more, you're nothing but bones."

He laughed and pushed back his hood before leaning down and kissing her on the forehead. "I'm so sorry I haven't been to visit before Luna, I only just found out you didn't die when your house..." He suddenly realized this might be a touchy subject.

She nodded, "Yes, I was sorry Daddy had to pass on, but I knew I'd see him sooner rather than later. It is a shame I had to wait here for so long though, I had such awful dreams."

A polite cough from the end of the bed drew both of their attention and Harry remembered his manners, "Luna, I would like to introduce you to two...fou..." He thought about it for a second and decided to keep it simple, "two very special women. This," he said indicating the woman on the other side of the bed, "Is Mother Nature."

"How do you do Lady Gaea?" Luna said dipping her head.

Orb giggled and a plant on the other side of the room grew several inches and its flowers bloomed, "Hello Luna, please call me Orb."

Luna nodded and looked at the foot of her bed, "And this," Harry said continuing the introductions, "is Fate."

The girl eyeballed the older woman for a few moments, "Many people have said you were not kind to Harry, but that isn't true. You did all you could for him or he would likely not have lived as long as he did. Thank you."

Lachesis grinned at the girl, "Luna, we have come today with a proposition. I'm afraid that your time has nearly come to an end, in two days time I'm afraid I am going to have to cut your thread."

Harry panicked, "You didn't tell me that! We can't let her die when we just brought her back!" He thought about it for a second and remembered who he was now, "I refuse to allow it!"

Lachesis winced a bit before the smile returned to her face, Luna was patting Harry's arm consolingly, "Harry it is okay, we all have our time on this plane and then we move on. I would get to be with Mummy and Daddy again."

"But you don't have to, we've come to offer you a choice." Orb said.

Niobi continued, "We would like you to become one of the aspects of Fate, I am the middle aspect known as Lachesis, I weave the tapestry of Life," She shifted to the old black woman, "I am Atropos, I measure and cut the threads of Life," She shifted once more and Clotho was before them, "And I am Clotho, I spin the thread of life. It is my office which we are here to offer you. I recently lost someone I dearly loved as an Incarnation and it reminds me that I have a full life ahead of me to live. I want to have children and grow older, I cannot do that as an Incarnation. I've come to offer you the chance to take my place rather than have your thread cut."

Luna seemed to contemplate for a few moments before speaking, "That would be lovely, I accept."

Clotho raised an eyebrow. "You do? Just like that? I know it took more than an offer to convince me."

Luna shrugged, "I would love to learn about how Fate works, plus I assume I get to spend plenty of time with Mother Nature this way, you are Lachesis' daughter are you not?"

Orb's eyes widened, "How did you know?"

Luna shrugged again, "Perhaps its a family resemblance, perhaps I just know. Sometimes I don't really know how I know, you know? I just do."

Harry, Clotho and even Orb had to blink at that rationalization before Clotho walked up next to Harry and shyly put her hands on his chest. "Harry...I know you don't understand...but may I ask you for a favor before I return to being a mortal?"

Harry was feeling uncomfortable and fidgety with her so close, but figured he had nothing to lose, "If it is within my power." He said softly.

She smiled up at him and moved her hands behind his neck to hug him, before he realized what was happening she had pulled his lips down to hers and was kissing him passionately. Harry was stiff at first but eventually he gave up and leaned into her. It was very nice until he had a flashback to his fifth year, he could taste the girls tears and feel her shuddering in his arms. It was Cho Chang all over again. The girl pulled back hiccuping and smiled up at him sadly. "Thank you Harry, you can't know how much that meant to me."

He just looked at her dumbly for a few seconds, "Um...any time?"

She smiled and took Luna's hand, "Alright Luna, this is going to feel a bit odd."

There was a strange watery shifting of both girls before Luna was standing in front of Harry and Clotho was on the bed in front of them in a hospital gown. "Oh my..." The girl exclaimed, "I'd forgotten how strange that was...and I'm still tingling..."

"That would be Luna's magic, you are a witch now Clotho, I tweaked your turnover just a bit to let her magic and knowledge of it stay with you. Luna still has hers as well but I thought I could leave you a parting gift." Orb said softly.

"Thank you Orb!" Clotho said getting out of bed and hugging the woman. Harry blushed and looked away as the girl he had just been kissing had nothing on under her gown and had a very nice derriere showing.

Before he could resist he felt arms snake behind his head and suddenly he was kissing Luna rather passionately just as he had the other girl only moments ago. He didn't lean into this one though, it just felt awkward, Luna stopped and stepped back from him. "Oh, that was very nice. I always wanted to do that Harry I hope you don't mind. But it's not time to do that with you yet, I'm sorry for taking advantage."

"Um...no problem Luna...just a little warning next time?" Harry said in confusion.

She nodded and shifted back into Lachesis who smiled at him, "Thank you for your help Harry, if I am not mistaken you wanted to go visit your family?"

He suddenly grinned, "I can still do that?"

Orb matched his grin, "You can, I wanted to go see my daughter today so I'll show you the way."

Lachesis nodded, "And we have a bit of training to do for our new Clotho, I promise we'll stop by so you can visit with Luna in a few days or so." With that Fate shifted to spider form and climbed a web into the ceiling and disappeared.

Orb just shook her head at her mothers departure, "I think mother doesn't know what she's gotten herself into with that one. Now Harry, if you'll grab my arm I'll take us back to the Central Office Building."

Not knowing what else to do Harry pulled his hood up and grasped her arm lightly, "As you with my Lady."

**A/N: I said before that based on reviews I'd decide what to write, reviews are like crack for my muse, but make sure they are fun to read reviews that spark my imagination. Otherwise I still appreciate all of the "great chapter please continue" reviews as well.**

**That said, It isn't fair to use JUST review counts, quality counts yes, but also having 10k words and 5 chapters in one story, but only 5k words and 3 chapters on another just doesn't make it fair (more reviews per chapter) So I have a bit of an averaging system based on reviews per wordcount...**

**In any case, both this and another story got an update today, now if I can only figure out where I was going with Hogwarts Shuffle! Maybe it will get an update as well.**

**Til next time, Cheers!**

**GML**


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